Dragana Van de moortel

Research Topic

An examination of the frescoes containing the Sun and the Moon, painted in the Visoki Dečani monastery in the fourteenth century

For more than five years, I have been investigating the symbology of frescoes depicting the Cosmos, and the concept of Time, in the fourteenth century Christian Orthodox Visoki Decani Monastery, located near Decani/Deçan, Kosovo.  I am especially fascinated by the frescoes of personified Sun and Moon: the tear-shaped paintings with human figures inside, located on the left and right side of The Crucifixion of Christ fresco, under the central dome of the Monastery.  The other fresco, which is a subject of my research, is the fresco of the Genesis, which depicts the unfolding of Time.  My intention is to address the Cosmic aspects of the frescoes and how these were interpreted in the Patristic texts and by medieval Christians scholars, through paintings from the Late Byzantine era.  

Publications:

Dragana Van de moortel-Ilić, ‘An Examination of the Images of the Sun and the Moon in the Visoki Dečani Monastery in Kosovo’, Culture and Cosmos, Volume 21, no 1 and 2, (Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter 2017), (http://www.cultureandcosmos.org/issues/vol21.php). 

Dragana Van de moortel, ‘Celestial Imagery – Personification of the Sun, the Moon and the planets in fourteenth century Serbian iconography’, Concept of Indian Heritage, Volume-II, Indian Institute of Oriental Heritage, Kolkata, (2019), pp.372-381.

Dragana Van de moortel-Ilić, ‘Kosmologija u srpskim srednjovekovnim freskama: Lesnovo’, Galaksija, No 3, (2019), Beograd, pp.107-119.

Conferences

Sophia Centre Conference, ‘Worship of the Stars: Celestial Themes in Observance and Practice of the Sacred’, Bath, 2016, Images of the Sun, the Moon and planets in Serbian medieval churches

23rd Congress of Byzantine Studies in Belgrade, August 2016, The cosmology of Aristotle and Plato in Serbian medieval churches: the frescoes in the Bogorodica Ljeviška church, Lesnovo and Visoki Dečani monasteries as case studies

24th SEAC conference (SEAC = European Society for Astronomy in Culture), ‘The Marriage of Astronomy and Culture: Theory and Method in the Study of Cultural Astronomy’, Bath, September 2016, Theory and method in the study of the images of the Sun and the Moon in the Visoki Dečani monastery, (http://sophia-project.net/sp_sponsored/seac2016/_images/SEAC_2016_Abstracts_Book.pdf)

Third Sophia Graduate Conference in London, November 2017, An examination of the images of the Sun and the Moon in the Visoki Dečani monastery in Kosovo, (http://sophiaproject.net/GraduateConferences/conf2017/speakers.php#draganamoortel)

42nd Annual International Conference on Oriental Heritage, New Delhi, India, March 2019, Celestial Imagery – Personification of  the Sun, the Moon and the planets in fourteenth century Serbian iconography.

28th International OUBS Graduate Conference, Oxford, 28th February – 1st March 2026, Cosmological Elements in the Lesnovo Narthex: Rulership, Death, and the Cycles of Decline and Renewal, (https://oxfordbyzantinesociety.wordpress.com/28th-oubs-intl-graduate-conference-2026/)

Sophia Centre Conference, Celestial Crossroads: Encounters, Intersections and Influences, Istanbul, Turkey 27-29 April 2026, The Narthex of the Lesnovo Monastery: Rulership, Dress, and Celestial Imagery, (https://sophia-project.net/sp_sponsored/2026-istanbul/index.php)